Public roads primarily facilitate traffic. Parking is offered as a secondary benefit incident to vehicle throughway. Local governments typically regulate parking on public roads, whether at curbside, in municipal lots, or on other public property, through a regulatory scheme that promotes public safety and provides revenue generation. The impact of regulated control over on-street parking affects all motorists, as well as urban residents, local businesses, commercial drivers, and other parties that use or rely upon on-street parking. Drivers who need to park their vehicle are directly impacted by regulated parking control. For example, looking for a parking space wastes time and fuel, contributes to traffic congestion, creates frustration and stress, and increases pollution, while disregarding parking regulations can result in parking tickets, fines, or towing. Still, despite these downsides, parking regulation remains a practical necessity.
Commonly, public parking is controlled through parking restrictions and prohibitions that permit parking on a first-come, first-served basis, with few exceptions, such as allowed by special permit. Parking compliance is regulated through a scheme of fees assessed for fixed intervals of time, after which a motorist is expected to either leave or, if permitted, pay for additional time. Public parking is typically purchased using parking meters assigned to individual parking spaces or through nearby curbside pay stations that collect payment and print a receipt, which must be displayed on the vehicle as proof of payment (“pay and display”); collect payment and provide the parking space number or identifier (“pay and no display”); collect payment and provide a license plate number; as well as other methods of associating proof of payment with use of a parking space, including where payment is transacted by phone or online.
Deploying parking meters at every parking space impacts the appearance and aesthetics of a street and increases maintenance and operating expenses to the local government. Where offered, public parking reservation systems forego physical parking meters and provide motorists with a centrally-operated alternative to the uncertainty of first-come, first-served on-the-street metered public parking. These types of systems allow drivers to plan ahead and reduce their stress over finding parking where and when needed. By enabling motorists to adjust their schedules to account for parking availability, drivers can plan direct and timely routes to available parking and save on time, fuel and headaches. As well, the public benefits from increased predictability and reduced traffic congestion.
Existing parking reservations systems retain the paradigm of traditional metered parking by treating parking spaces as individually-reservable resources, which can create a further set of problems. When reservations are associated with individual parking spaces, each unoccupied space has its own unique list of pending reservations. Time gaps between adjoining reservations may be too short to be usable by other motorists, thereby reducing overall parking occupancy. Moreover, when each individually-reserved parking space has a potentially different amount of time available, drivers without a parking reservation are forced to keep searching until they find an open parking space with enough unreserved time for parking. Conventional parking systems reflect this paradigm.
U.S. Pat. No. RE40,013, reissued Jan. 22, 2008, to Quinn, discloses a method and apparatus for detection and remote notification of vehicle parking space. Local detector devices sense the presence or absence of a vehicle in an individual parking space and communicate individual parking space identification and status information to a computer network. The information is integrated with electronic street maps. The street maps, annotated with the parking space status identifiers, are electronically communicated to any number of networks.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,791,501, issued Sep. 7, 2010, to Ioli, discloses a vehicle identification, tracking, and parking enforcement system. The system includes a meter system that generates image data of a vehicle in an individual parking space, public roadway, and highway entrances and exits. In operation, the system allows license tags, special parking permits, handicapped tags, or other suitable tags to be readily identified, which allows parking areas that have been reserved for handicapped or other personnel to be monitored. Unauthorized individuals that have parked in those locations can thereby be determined. An enforcement and tracking system receives the vehicle image data and generates a vehicle license number, vehicle tag identification number, and facial image. From the image date acquired, monitoring of parking spaces is performed and violation citations or notices are generated.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,768,426, issued Aug. 3, 2010, to Groft, discloses a parking system employing remote asset management techniques. A vehicle detection system and smart meter identify all information as to an individual parking space, including when a vehicle enters or leaves, how long the vehicle has been in the space, whether the parking meter associated with that space is in good operating order, whether the requested charge for parking has been paid, whether the vehicle is in compliance with regulations, whether a violation has occurred or is about to occur, and the status of usage of the collection mechanism. This information is collected, stored, and transmitted to a central command and control interface, which collates, analyses, and transmits reports to a display. All parties involved in parking, from whatever point of view, are able to monitor the status of all parking spaces in near real time and make use of the information developed on an interactive basis, thereby enabling the highest degree of efficiency in management of parking spaces through real time parking information collection.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,579,964, issued Aug. 25, 2009, to Nath et al., discloses a method for intelligent parking, pollution, and surveillance control. Parking meters sense the presence of a vehicle parked in a metered zone by emitting a narrow signal beam around an area where a vehicle can park. Two pairs of miniature surveillance cameras are included in the housing of an intelligent parking enforcement device, such as a parking meter. The presence of a vehicle parked nearby is sensed by a sensor beacon and, on the successful acknowledgement of a vehicle's presence, the system transmits a unique identifier to the parked vehicle and continuously monitors the vehicle for idling. The intelligent parking enforcement device communicates with a automobile registration control system, which is informed of impending parking violations and, when appropriate, a violation summons is issued.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,393,134, issued Jul. 1, 2008, to Mitschele, discloses a parking meter that includes a micro-controller coupled with a vehicle detector that is focused at an associated parking space. A payment acceptance mechanism is coupled with the micro-controller to receive payment for pre-paid parking. Operation of the parking meter is initiated by directing an interrogation signal at an associated parking space and the presence of a vehicle is detected. A parking violation occurs when the driver either fails to make payment within a pre-determined standby interval or when the pre-paid parking interval expires.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,237,716, issued Jul. 3, 2007, to Silberberg, discloses a parking system for sending messages. The parking system has a parking meter in close proximity to an individual parking space. The parking meter receives payment and thereafter establishes a parking period, during which a vehicle is able to legitimately park in the space. A communication means sends a message to the user's mobile phone prior to the expiry of the parking period.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,019,670, issued Mar. 28, 2006, to Bahar, discloses an enhanced meter utilizing user identification technology. A user or vehicle is identified by communication of user data into the parking meter system. If the meter expires with the vehicle remaining in the parking space, a citation is electronically processed and delivered. A vehicle presence detector utilizes infrared, ultrasonic, sonar, photoelectric, or other technology to detect the presence of a vehicle in a metered parking space. Recognition of the user or vehicle further enables the system to limit the individual's or vehicle's parking time to help regulate traffic within a municipality district, as well as prevent people from parking on a metered location for excessive periods of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,014,355, issued Mar. 21, 2006, to Potter, Sr. et al., discloses an electronic parking meter system. Electronically-operated parking meters are coupled with a sensor for positively and unobtrusively sensing the presence or absence of a vehicle in an individual parking space. An induction coil mounted below the surface of a parking area provides positive signals to the parking meter upon both the entrance and movement of a vehicle into and from the parking space. A transaction record can be stored showing exact dates and times of the arrival and departure of the vehicle. This data, when combined with other records, can provide a variety of real time management information to a parking manager, including an electronic citation issuance system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,317, issued Nov. 23, 2004, to Ouimet et al., discloses an urban parking system. A wireless network covering a large local geographic area is linked to a large number of payment terminals, which are located near a plurality of parking spaces, either at curbside or in municipal lots. Parking data is gathered from motorists at the payment terminals, including vehicle or parking space identification data. The parking data is sent to the wireless network in response to payment. A plurality of portable terminals is provided for use by parking wardens. The wireless network is used to transmit the parking data to the portable terminals of the parking wardens upon receipt.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,493,676, issued Dec. 10, 2002, to Levy, discloses a system and method for charging for vehicle parking. A parking system includes a plurality of mobile parking units that each has a unique identification for installation in a vehicle, and a parking control center for communicating with each of the mobile parking units. Each mobile parking unit checks its location whenever the vehicle is not moving and, if the location coincides with a known parking area, a charge for parking is activated until the vehicle resumes travel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,782, issued Jun. 8, 1999, to Schmitt et al., discloses an on-board vehicle parking space finder service. When a vehicle enters a parking space, a parking meter, equipped with an ultrasonic, sonar, or other sensor device, senses the presence of the vehicle and changes its internal state to “occupied.” When the vehicle leaves, the parking meter senses the departure and changes its internal space to “available.” As soon as the parking meter detects a change of state, a data message containing the parking meter identifier or location information and parking availability status is sent to a nearby central site. When a driver desires to locate available on-street parking, a request is sent from the on-board navigation computer to the central site. Upon receipt, the central site computer transmits a parking space availability message to the vehicle. The vehicle on-board computer displays the parking space availability to the requester.
There is a need for more efficiently offering public parking to motorists that avoids the inefficiencies of individually-metered or -reserved parking allocation and control approaches.